And if so, at what age?
Just curious.
My father loves it and lets me watch it but I am 34. My daughters are 1 and 5 and they are not allowed to watch it for obvious reasons. The lowest age that I would actually consent to regularly watching it would be age 14 or so. They have some crazy stuff in that little cartoon.
I let my daughter “watch” it (not really watching it, but playing in the room while her father and I watched it - if she had actively watched it, I probably would have turned it off) until about 18 months, and now she’s cut off until she starts watching it at her friends’ houses, which I suspect will be around 12 or 13.
That was my son’s method, anyway. He wasn’t allowed to watch it until he started watching it elsewhere, at which point I thought, “Well, might as well watch it with him so there are no secrets!”
We’re not regular viewers, but occasionally we’ll finish something on the DVR and South Park will be playing when our show ends and we’ll leave it on if it’s at a funny part.
I don’t let them, but they do watch occasionally. 8 & 11, they started with Simpsons and of course that’s a gateway show, soon they were sneaking Family Guy and South Park episodes, but luckily they still find Robot Chicken to be a bit too strong.
Mine are 5, 3, and 4 months, so definitely not. (I mean, if it were just the 4-month-old, that would be fine, obviously.)
I dunno when I’d feel okay with letting them watch it. Probably when I felt that they were old enough to understand that although the cartoon characters are using inappropriate language and doing inappropriate things, that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to do those things in real life. I don’t know when that will be. But, definitely not now. 
I have just recently started making sure my daughter (3 years old) isn’t around when I watch it. Up until recently, she didn’t pay any attention to TV, but now she is starting to notice…especially if the show is animated. (She watched an entire episode of The Simpsons the other day, and we were laughing, because there’s no way any of it could have made a lick of sense to her!) Of course, she’s at the age where she repeats everything she hears, so on the basis of language alone I don’t want her around when South Park is on.
My philosophy about letting a teenager watch is a little different from WhyNot’s. I would probably maintain “official policy” in my house that a show like that is off-limits, with maybe a decreasing amount of strictness or more turning a blind eye to it as the kids get through high school. I know that when I’m not around, they’ll be watching it, but I think it’s important to at least make a strong point that you don’t consider it appropriate for them.
My kid and I watch it together. She started letting me watch it when she was about 16.
Makes sense. I’m that way with the CSI/Law & Order/ER/OrangeGrey’s90210 type shows. It’s immaterial to me whether or not Nick’s mom lets my kid watch them while he’s at Nick’s house, but I still deny them at ours. It’s a realistic violence/sex thing for me, especially when violence and sex are combined. I’m far less disturbed by cartoon anal sex with Satan jokes that are so obviously ridiculous and over the top* than real-looking rape and murder and torture. So for those, as you say, I make a strong point that I don’t consider it appropriate for him. We all have our “things” as parents, and certainly if your kids were at my house, I’d follow your rules as well as my own.
*'Cause frankly, I’m pretty sure most of the humor in South Park is *aimed *at 14 year old boys, if you know what I mean! 
My son is 10. We do not allow him to watch it. He also is not allowed to watch Family Guy or American Dad. I can’t see us allowing him to watch any of these shows before he reaches high school age, at a minimum.
We do allow him to watch The Simpsons, though.
I’m not sure I’m old enough to watch South Park! I appreciate the difference between WhyNot’s mental categories of realistic violence vs. really gross jokes, but I think I’ll wind up treating them the same. We don’t watch any of it in our house, is going to be our rule. The most graphic show I watch is Stargate Atlantis. They can watch that when they’re 12, maybe. Depends on what they can handle. (At 10 I couldn’t have watched it–Ghostbusters scared me to death.)
I don’t let my kids watch Family Guy or South Park. I wouldn’t let them watch Sopranos. I watch the Simpsons with them.
I also kept Barney out of my house. That show is a worse influence than South Park.
My wife watches shows like House and CSI with them. I am not fond of this decision.
I think for South Park, the kids will wait until they are at least teens.
Jim
Well, so would I, but I’m pretty sure not all parents would be that considerate! The thing that bothers me about South Park is that I’m not entirely sure that the kids would get the deeper level of humor, satire, and social commentary, so all it would be for them is smut humor. I agree with you on some of the other shows you listed…so many of them go for the goriest shock value they can…even shows with strong writing that you would think could stand on that alone.
Of course, on the surface, it is! I think it’s hilarious, though, so I’m not sure what that says about me.
My steps watch it; at 10 and 12, they’ve been hooked for about 2 years. But their mother is one of those “expose them to everything out there and let them decide what they can handle” types. They’ve been watching Python for quite awhile, too (which led to the humorous “Mommy, what’s a blowjob?” encounter).
Sure, their sense of humor is a bit advanced, but they understand it, and know when not to expose others to it. Well, except for the time her 12-y.o. called a teacher a douche. But then again, she is a douche.
I watch with my friends 3 1/2 year old- Family Guy, Simpsons and American Dad as well. My logic- the common curse words she hears in others places, the uncommon ones won’t register, the adult themes won’t register, etc. I don’t believe in shielding children from such things. Live action versions would be a different story, and I probably wouldn’t, but almost anything is palatable in cartoon form. I didn’t see any films or shows with cursing or nudity until I was probably about 16, and I think of all the cool things I missed because of it.
Yes. (8 and 10) 'Cause trust me, they’re hearing a lot worse in the schoolyard. It’s a cartoon. I believe they know the difference between cartoon reality and real reality. We watch it together some times, or they watch it on their own. They watch Robot Chicken too.
Teaching them right from wrong and the appropriateness of using incorrect language in certain situations is more important to me than juvenile humour in cartoons.
The Princess’ dad let her watch with him when he lived with us. I don’t. Though she did learn the “I Love to Singa” song from the “Cartman gets an anal probe” episode. Also, I was left with the unenviable task of explaining what an anal probe is to a (then) 4-year-old. :eek: My niece isn’t allowed to watch this show, but she is allowed to use the South Park character generator website by my sister.
Also, I have a 14-year-old cousin with autism whose dad (my uncle) lets her watch South Park, because this is one of the TV shows that calm her down when she gets overstimulated. Before that, she used to watch “Dilbert”.
Sometimes I’ll watch the parody videos other people have done of various movies and anime series set to South Park dialogue on YouTube, but only when there are no children in the room.
I’m not a parent, but I’ve been watching South Park since I was… 8 maybe? The main thing I remember from back then is laughing at Stan barfing on Wendy, stuff like that. The swearing didn’t really register for me, probably because I didn’t understand the words or the more adult themes. Also, I knew what was appropriate language to use when I was out of the house, so I generally didn’t repeat anything I heard.
Ten years later I can appreciate the deeper meanings and the more artful swear words, but “Kyle’s Mom Is A Bitch” is still exactly as funny as it was in Grade 5!
I’d require my kids to watch it, starting at as early an age as possible.
And that’s the very least of the reasons why it’s a good thing I don’t have kids.
My brother started watching it when it first came on which would make him about nine. My parents weren’t super obsessed with monitoring what we watched. (I do remember my mom wasn’t too keen on my brother putting that down as part of a class survey for school as his favorite show.)
I was about 13 or so when it first aired, but I didn’t start actually enjoying it until I was about high school/college age.
I’d probably encourage it, like Miller. The one thing that would make me a bit nervous was if the kid didn’t get the satire elements. The last thing you need as a dark skinned person, is having a child who runs around calling his friends “Stupid Jews” and planning death to them while dressed as Hitler and extolling the virtues of “The Passion of the Christ.” :eek:
That’s exactly it…the language per se doesn’t bother me…they’re bound to hear me say fuck every once in a while. The thing that bothers me about South Park is that the humor is very satirical. If they aren’t sophisticated to understand satire, they may learn to say some very offensive and hurtful things to people, without knowing what they’re saying.